Jennings Opts for ABC Over ’60 Minutes’

Peter Jennings has signed a new, multi-year contract to continue as anchor of ABC’s top-rated evening newscast, “World News Tonight,” but only after giving serious consideration to an offer to become a correspondent for CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

According to the plan proposed by top CBS executives who were quietly wooing Jennings, the ABC anchor would have reported for the newsmagazine, television’s most popular program this season, from a base in Paris.

Voluntarily leaving one of the most powerful and high-profile jobs in network news would have been a startling departure for an anchor, and it would have caused considerable concern for ABC News, which is undergoing management restructuring and which has in Jennings the top-rated anchor of a highly profitable newscast that has been No. 1 in the ratings since 1989.

Jennings, a former foreign correspondent and London-based anchor for ABC News, was said by sources to have seriously weighed the proposal from CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer and “60 Minutes” executive producer Don Hewitt, because it would have allowed him to report stories and to live with his family in Europe.

Jennings’ wife, author Kati Marton, was born in Hungary.

The challenge of a new assignment in Europe had appeal to Jennings, sources said, although he was not unhappy at “World News Tonight.” Jennings recently traveled in the former Yugoslavia, reporting a series of stories on the war there for “World News Tonight.”

Jennings, Hewitt and others involved in the negotiations declined to comment on the CBS offer.

“I’ve just re-signed my contract, and I’m very excited about my work here,” Jennings said in an interview. He declined to discuss his contract, and ABC executives also would not comment. But network sources said that it was for five years and was “generous” in its terms.

Paul Friedman, who has been executive producer of “World News Tonight” for the past five years, this week was promoted to executive vice president of ABC News, making him the heir apparent to ABC News President Roone Arledge, 61.

According to network sources, one factor in Jennings’ decision to stay at ABC was loyalty to Friedman, a close friend, as he took over his new job.

A new executive producer of “World News Tonight” has not been named.

“Paul’s appointment is both a loss and a gain,” Jennings said of Friedman’s departure from the newscast. “We’ve been very lucky to have Roone Arledge as president of ABC News, and the challenge for us is to simply expand upon our success.”